Iain M. Banks’ novel Consider Phlebas is being adapted by Amazon, with the late writer’s Estate serving as Executive Producer.
The famed space opera features Banks’ interstellar utopian society, the Culture, in which an advanced and highly progressive society end up at war with the deeply religious Idirans, a warlike race intent on dominating the entire galaxy.
The story centres on Horza, a rogue agent tasked by the Idirans with the impossible mission of recovering a missing Culture ‘Mind,’ an artificial intelligence many thousands of times smarter than any human—something that could hold the key to wiping out the Culture altogether.
What unfolds ultimately asks the poignant question of how we can use technology to preserve our humanity, not surrender it.
“The story of the Culture is so rich and captivating that for years Hollywood has been trying to bring this utopian society to life on the screen,” said Sharon Tal Yguado, Head of Scripted Series at Amazon Studios.
“We are honoured that we have been chosen, along with Dennis Kelly and Plan B Entertainment, to make Consider Phlebas into a television series we think will be loved by fans for years to come.”
“Iain Banks has long been a hero of mine and his innate warmth, humour and humanism shines through these novels,” said series writer Dennis Kelly.
“Far from being the dystopian nightmares that we are used to, Banks creates a kind of flawed paradise, a society truly worth fighting for—rather than a warning from the future, his books are a beckoning.”
The series will be produced by Plan B Entertainment who said: “We revere the work of Iain Banks and continue to be moved by his inimitable spirit and his commitment to imagining a better future even in the darkest of times.
“Consider Phlebas simultaneously explores the deepest questions concerning humanity and our future. We are so grateful to The Estate of Iain Banks for the opportunity to bring his work to life, and to Amazon for the scope of their ambition and commitment to building Iain’s prescient world.”
